The historian Sallust regarded the conspiracy led by Catiline
in 62 B.C. as a result of moral decline; in his account, Catiline's
supporter Sempronia egregiously lacks the qualities for which
virtuous Roman matrons are celebrated, but possesses others.

(24.3) At that time Catiline is said to have attracted many people
of every sort, including some women. These had first sold their
bodies to finance their luxuries, but later, when age set a limit
to this activity-but not to their tastes-fell heavily into debt.
Catiline believed he could use these women to win over the urban
slaves, set fire to the city, and either enlist or kill their
husbands.

(25) One of these women was Sempronia, whose masculine boldness
had already led her to commit many crimes. This woman was favoured
by fortune in birth and beauty as well as in her husband and children.
She was well read in Greek and Latin literature; she played the
lyre and danced with greater skill than propriety warrants; and
she had a number of other accomplishments all of the sort that
promote dissipation. But to her nothing was more worthless than
modesty and chastity. It is not easy to say which she threw away
more wantonly, her money or her reputation. She was so oversexed
that it was more often she who went after men than the other way
around. She had often broken promises, disavowed her debts, and
been an accessory to murder. Love of luxury combined with poverty
had driven her headlong. And yet, she had real talents. She could
write verse, make jokes, and converse with modesty, tenderness,
or wantonness. She was a woman of considerable wit and charm.